My name is Frank Bloksberg. I have lived in Nevada City for about 18 years. I am a lawyer and run a martial arts school, in Grass Valley, called Aikido’Ka. At Aikido’Ka, we train in aikido – known as the “Art of Peace.” Aikido’Ka is different than other martial arts schools, because we are dedicated to peacefully resolving disputes and performing community service. For instance, we have raised over $13,000 and 6,000 pounds of food for the Food Bank.

Aikido’Ka has been open for 6 years. We’ve had a booth at every County Fair since we’ve been open. The County Fair is a huge outreach opportunity for us. We meet a lot of our future students there. Deciding not having a booth is a really big deal for us.

Aikido is based upon respect – respect for our fellow students, teachers, our training space. The respect inherent in aikido is a deep, profound respect. Without the support, trust and willingness of our fellow practitioners, we cannot practice the art and improve ourselves in the ways that aikido provides.

By design, the respect that we learn spreads to the rest of our lives. And for that reason, I have to seriously consider the respect/ethical implications of supporting a Fair that offers elephant rides to entertain children.

Elephants are intelligent, wild and very dangerous animals. The only way to help ensure that they are reasonably safe in unpredictable public situations is to use training techniques that are extremely powerful. We know that the training techniques involve some pain and fear.

Whether the training techniques are brutal or abusive doesn’t matter. One may be able to argue in good faith that abusing a creature is ethical for an incredibly important purpose. Or one may be able to argue in good faith that causing pain and fear in a creature is ethical for a really good reason. I might disagree with these arguments, but one may be able to make the arguments in good faith.

In my personal view, the value of entertaining children with an elephant ride is trivial, at best. In other words, what a child receives from riding an elephant is not worth putting the elephant through anything at all. It certainly cannot justify taking elephant babies from their mothers or putting elephants in fear or pain. It certainly cannot justify the risks involved in moving elephants around the country and placing them in unpredictable public situations where they can hurt people.

To me, the only ways to conclude that elephant rides are appropriate is to consider the rides of far greater value than I do or to completely disregard the elephants’ interests. Please do not think that I am placing the elephants’ interests over human interests. I am saying that we must consider the elephants’ interests to ethically decide what to do. And, here, where the value received from elephant rides is so small in comparison to the harms inherent in offering elephant rides, I cannot ethically support the rides.

Now that I have concluded that offering elephant rides at the Fair is unethical, should Aikido’Ka have a booth or perform aikido demonstrations at the Fair? If respect means anything, acting respectfully must include acting ethically.

If Aikido’Ka supports the Fair by participating and paying our fees, then we directly and indirectly support the presence of the elephant rides. We would support the rides directly because HTWT will not be paying the Fair anything at all. So we would, in part, be paying for HTWT’s presence. We would support the rides indirectly by letting the Board know that we will support their decisions even if those decisions are unethical.

We could have a booth and place a banner saying that we don’t support the elephant rides. We cannot do that, because that seems hypocritical to me. We’d be supporting HTWT’s presence, while trying to convince everyone that we didn’t.

For these reasons, and others, we won’t have a booth at this year’s Fair.

Each year at the Fair, we offer a “Fair Special.” The Special is always really good. Since we won’t be at the Fair this year, we’ll be offering a really good “Un-Fair Special.” Please watch for it. We’ll announce it soon.

AikiTots is a movement class to help young children become more coordinated and aware of how their bodies work. Children gain a beginning understanding of respect and how to cooperate with others. Children this age are developing very quickly, but are still very young. The class is very vigorous and fast-paced.

AikiTots is not an aikido or other type of martial arts class. We will not be teaching very young children to defend themselves through martial arts or how to hurt people. Children this age already know how to hit and kick. I really don’t see any value in teaching a 4-year-old how to hit or kick someone effectively.

Rather the class will feel like a very fun and structured play date in which your child will happily follow directions, learn new things and have a great time — not to mention get a workout.

Another fun thing — you and older siblings may participate in the class. Having family involved just makes aikido class that much more fun!

Please check out this quick video from a recent and typically high-energy, fun AikiTots class:

Decorated graves at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day. Photo by Wikipedia.

I’ve never been in the military. I simply would not have been a good “fit.” None of my close family have been in the military. The closest is a cousin who was in the Navy reserve for a short time. Oh, and there’s the brother-in-law who somehow got himself thrown out during basic.

But I’ve had many, many friends and acquaintances who have served. And I can tell that I’ve missed something terribly important.

And then, of course, there are all those folks who chose – or were forced – to serve and gave the ultimate sacrifice. They fell so that we can run and play. They gave all so that we can watch TV and cruise the internet. They died so that we can be all that we can be, or not.

So as I go about my usual reading (I don’t watch TV), I see lots of stories about Memorial Day Weekend being the start of “grilling season” and “beach season” and the beginning of summer. There are a bunch of stories about the Indy 500.

I have no problem with any of these things. I think they’re all great, if you’re into them. In fact, hanging out with friends and grilling and going to the beach and going to a car race sound pretty fantastic.

But Memorial Day is about none of these things. Thanks to those we honor on Memorial Day, we have all of these things. We need to keep this clear.

Memorial Day a Federal holiday honoring members of the United States Armed Forces who have died serving their country. Let me correct that: These people died serving our country.

So during this lovely long weekend of fun and games, let’s take some time and reflect on those heroes who made it possible. And be very, very thankful to them.